Ole Miss women’s basketball heads into its bye with a lot of momentum.
The Rebels upset then-No. 5 Oklahoma on the road, 74-69, and followed that up with a dominant, 93-68 win against instate rival Mississippi State.
Those results combined with some other upsets (LSU giving Texas its first loss of the season, Oklahoma losing a second-straight game against Kentucky) would lead one to think Ole Miss was going to get a sizable bump in the latest top 25 rankings.
However, that’s not what happened.
Ole Miss moved up only two spots to No. 16 in Monday’s updated AP Top 25 Women’s College Basketball Poll. That miniscule rise reinforces something coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin said after Sunday’s win against the Bulldogs.
“I do think that we need a little bit more respect,” she said in the post-game press conference. “Texas just lost on the road to LSU, who was 0-2 (in SEC games). And then we go and we beat the number five team. Start respecting Ole Miss.
“Ole Miss is for real in all of our sports. We have to change that narrative and I feel like we’ve been doing our part. Now, it’s time for national media to jump on board because we’re not going anywhere.”
McPhee-McCuin has a very good case to make for her team to be ranked higher. The Rebels have won 16 games and their only losses have been to Kansas State, Michigan State (now ranked No. 15) and No. 4 Texas. Their best wins are against then-No. 18 Notre Dame (now unranked) and then-No. 5 Oklahoma (now No. 13).
Also, some of the other decisions by the voters don’t make sense when compared to Ole Miss. Ohio State moved up five spots to No. 14 after beating then-No. 8 Maryland this weekend. But the Rebels beating a higher ranked team only warrants moving up two spots?
It doesn’t make sense and it’s not because the voters couldn’t put Ole Miss ahead of Michigan State. If that were true, why isn’t Oklahoma ranked behind Ole Miss?
“I feel like we always got to do two times more than everybody else,” McPhee-McCuin said. Seeing these rankings, she may very well be right about that.
Update
McPhee-McCuin made the following social media post that pretty much reaffirms everything she said Sunday and what’s written above.
This is a joke! And if the voters not going to do their jobs we don’t need a AP POLL! Had we lost two games in a row we’d be fighting to stay in or we’d be out! https://t.co/7oGRafewzN
— Coach Yo (@YolettMcCuin) January 12, 2026
AP Top 25 Women’s College Basketball Poll
- UConn 17-0
- South Carolina 17-1
- UCLA 15-1
- Texas 18-1
- Vanderbilt 17-0
- LSU 16-2
- Kentucky 16-2
- Michigan 14-2
- Louisville 16-3
- TCU 16-1
- Iowa 14-2
- Maryland 16-2
- Oklahoma 14-3
- Ohio State 15-2
- Michigan State 16-1
- Ole Miss 16-3
- Texas Tech 18-0
- Baylor 15-3
- Iowa State 14-3
- Tennessee 12-3
- Alabama 16-1
- Princeton 14-1
- Notre Dame 12-4
- Nebraska 14-3
- Illinois 14-3
Others receiving votes: West Virginia 41, Duke 41, North Carolina 21, Minnesota 12, Washington 11, Stanford 10, Utah 8, Southern Cal 4, Rode Island 4, Georgia 3, Oregon 2, NC State 2.
